


Aftershocks.

by Bakuras



Category: Tiger & Bunny
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-19
Updated: 2016-06-19
Packaged: 2018-07-15 23:21:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7242982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bakuras/pseuds/Bakuras
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Barnaby and Kotetsu are faced with a NEXT that they can't beat.<br/>Not, at least, without help.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Aftershocks.

Barnaby would rather die than have someone in his head again.That is absolutely, unquestionably true. 

He feels the aftershocks of Maverick’s influence sometimes.Split-second losses of control, where something, _somewhere_ would _slip_ and he’d feel that…drive again. 

Nobody should know what it’s like to want (to genuinely, _really_ want, as much as you ever wanted anything else, as much as you think you _could_ want anything else) the love of their life to die between their fingers, to feel their body convulse in one last desperate attempt to draw breath.To feel their flesh bend beneath his hands, crush their skull as though it were crumpled paper.Feeling it for Kotetsu - for somebody who he loved so much it physically _ached_ him at times, even for the smallest lapse - it was nothing short of terrifying. 

He’d been afraid before.Not like this.Nothing like this.Not ever. 

Not with Maverick.Not with Jake.Not with Andrew.

It isn’t arrogance that tells him there was nothing more terrifying than himself. 

Barnaby was told he didn’t need to face it.It wasn’t him.It was brain damage.It was a short-circuit in his mind caused by years and years and years of resetting and rewriting.It wasn’t his fault, he was nothing to be afraid of.He was as much a victim as anybody else.More so, even. 

It was easy for them to say in theory.They weren’t burdened with understanding how genuine it was.

And after all of this - after living with not knowing if _this_ would be the one to last, if today he’d watch the man he made slow, gentle love to only hours earlier choke on his own blood as Barnaby held his ripped trachea in one hand - there was another. 

 

The prison is well outside the city’s borders,the only building on a flat plane of sand and pebbles for miles in any direction.It's hot enough that not even the car’s air conditioner isn't fully keeping them cool, and the air is so dry that it actually hurt to breathe.Around the perimeter, they find not barbed wire and metal fencing, but stone walls that have to reach fifteen or twenty feet high.

“I thought you said you were suppressing it.”Kotetsu says as he tugs off his shoes, reluctantly tossing them into the box. 

“No chances.Not with him.”The guard replied.

They're incredibly thorough - no rings, no tags, no watches.Barnaby even had to leave his jacket outside the gate, only because of the _smallest_ fraction of metal attached to his zipper.Both he and Kotetsu are given slippers to wear instead of their shoes as well, just in case.The guard had also offered Barnaby temporary glasses with plastic frames to wear down to the cell, but they were clunky and didn’t help his vision much at all, so he went without. 

Neither of them are particularly nervous, but a newfound respect seems to wash over Barnaby.It's a halfway fearful respect - he knows the man he's meeting is formidable, but somehow, this setting is more intimidating than battle.Not even Jake Martinez required such extensive security. 

Barnaby respects Andrew Scott in the same way that one would respect a black mamba. 

“Half a mile from here.Downhill all the way.”The guard opens the gate and invited them through. 

“So…”Kotetsu places his hands in his pockets, almost as though he's trying to keep them up without the buckled suspenders.“How do you even stop him?”

“There’s a couple ways.Like I said, no metal anywhere near him.”

“Yeah?What else?”  
Barnaby tenses slightly. There seems to be an _edge_ to Kotetsu’s voice that he didn’t expect - almost accusatory, actually.Different than his usual irritated tone, thats’ for sure.There’s definitely something behind it.

Nevertheless, the guard doesn’t notice, or if he _does_ , he doesn’t seem give it much thought.“He’s also got a little implant on the bottom of his spine. _Should_ deaden his power, in theory, but there’s always room for error there, y’know.‘Specially with someone like him.So it’s got a failsafe.”

Kotetsu’s quiet, but there’s certainly something _off_.

“See, the implant’s programmed to detect the NEXT hormone, forget what it’s called…anyway, goes off when he activates his ability.Same thing that makes him glow, I think.So _if_ he gets past the blocks, we put him right to sleep.65 milligrams of propofol, just like that.”

This time, it’s Barnaby that snaps. 

“…That’s almost _lethal!”_

“It’s fast, is what it is.He can take it.Most of ‘em do, anyway.”

 

The guard doesn’t bother coming down the final corridor with them.He waits at the gate, leaving Barnaby to wonder if it’s his status as a hero that grants him an unsupervised audience with one of the most dangerous NEXT alive, or if anybody could walk in and have the same. 

“Barnaby.”

Clearly, the voice he used during battle was his real one, since all of the airiness and softness is entirely gone. 

Kotetsu hangs back a few feet as Barnaby approaches the pane of glass separating the prisoner and himself. 

Virgil - no, _Andrew_ , looks mostly the same, if thinner, from what Barnaby can see.He’s wearing glasses, which means either the ones he had before didn’t have any metal on them in the first place, or they happened to find an all-plastic pair that looked very, very similar. 

“Andrew.You’re alright?” 

“Better than you, if you’re coming to me for help.”

His tone is flat, almost disinterested.He continues before Barnaby has the chance to say a word. 

“I understand your logic.You want Professor X, so you’re trying to recruit Magneto.” 

…So he knows.Already. 

“How did you - ”

“I didn’t take you for an imbecile, Barnaby.Naive, yes.And lacking in the ability to see the world through anything but the rose-tinted goggles of unconditional mercy.But not _nearly_ stupid enough to assume that you’re the first person to stand where you are.”

Barnaby stepped back.“Who else came to you?”

“Unfortunately, though, your target is not a telepath, is he?And just the same, I have no control over magnetism.Metal is a force to be reckoned with, but I’m afraid I cannot rip the earth apart.”

“That’s not why I’m here.”

“…Even so, to say that their powers alone are the only reason that Professor X and Magneto can’t kill each other completely misses the point.There’s attachment.They’re one another’s weakness.” 

At that, his eyes flick from Barnaby to Kotetsu, and back again. 

“And unfortunately, your NEXT does not have that toward me.”

Barnaby really should’ve known he’d be this uncooperative.His occasional optimism only sets him up for frustration, it seems. 

“Furthermore.”His voice is more serious now, though no less cutting.“I assume you know what his power is, Barnaby.”

“Will manipulation.”

“Mm.” 

There’s a long pause between them.Barnaby can hear Kotetsu shift uncomfortably. 

“…Is my ability _really_ something that you want him to have control of?”Andrew finally says, almost accusatorially.“You’ve seen what I can do.And that was with a target of only one man.I’m not a monster, Barnaby.But if I were, I’d be unstoppable.”

_That isn’t arrogance.It’s truth._

But it isn’t anything that Barnaby doesn’t already know.

“I don’t want your power.I want your mind.”

Another pause.Longer.Tenser. 

“…The devices that the others were wearing.The ones that cancelled out all of our attacks.You built them, didn’t you?”

Andrew’s previously cold stare shifts into something that seems like it _might_ be understanding.Barnaby continues. 

“I saw what was left of your machine.That’s not something somebody can just _make_ , NEXT or not.You had to understand it to create it.”

Barnaby puts one hand on the glass.A peace offering. 

_“You know very well what my price is.”_

And all of a sudden, Barnaby’s stomach feels like it dropped.Because he does. 

He’s known his price since he realized he couldn’t beat this threat without him.He could offer him anything else, _anything_ \- 

“Schneider is in jail, Andrew.He can’t - “

“I don’t want him in jail.I want his _head.”_

Silence.Long, thick silence.Barnaby doesn’t have anything to say.He could offer freedom.He could offer wealth.But Barnaby knows bloodlust - real, _primal_ bloodlust, that eclipses and drowns out every single other need. 

He should have accepted it.He knows.He knows.He knows. 

No amount of gold can stop a cobra from devouring a mouse.

“…You really would trade the lives of a city for the life of one man.”Andrew clicked his tongue.After a moment, he sets his face back to the same hard, blank expression he had when Barnaby and Kotetsu walked in. 

And just like that, Barnaby loses. 

He can’t do this without him.He knows it.Andrew knows it.The people who gave him permission to offer _anything_ in exchange for his help must have known it too. 

Barnaby is going to kill Kotetsu.The target is already on his back.The NEXT knows who he is.It’s how he operates. 

…

_“Do you want to know what it’s like.”_

It’s not cutting.It’s not scolding.It’s the purest form of desperation that Barnaby has felt in years. 

“Bunny - ”

“Do you?Do you have any idea what it’s like to be _in that position?”_

_“Barnaby.”_

“I wanted to kill him.You know what?Sometimes I still do.Do you know what that _feels_ like?Because I promise, I fucking _promise_ you, however you think that is, it’s worse.” 

“Barnaby.Stop it _.Now.”_

He doesn’t. 

“I don’t know how often I feel it, but I still do.Maverick is _dead_ and I still feel it.”Barnaby’s voice is beginning to waver, but he ignores it completely, pushing past the block that seems to form in his throat.“And he - Kotetsu - it’s terrifying.I’m _terrified_.I love him so, so m-”

It takes him more than a few seconds to compose himself.He can’t, not completely. 

“I love him so much I think I might die.” 

Kotetsu doesn’t try to stop him again.Barnaby’s composure is slipping _rapidly._

“And he almost died because of me. _He almost died because of me.”_

Andrew’s face is steel that shows no sign of softening.

Barnaby knows his limit.He knows full well the game that he’s playing here.He doesn’t know exactly what to say to get him to listen, to _understand_ how desperate the situation is, how desperate _Barnaby_ is.But he knows what _not_ to say.

He knows.He does it anyway.

“…You think it hurt when you lost your father?”

His voice is quiet.It doesn’t waver.Kotetsu looks like he’d say something if he wasn’t stunned by the words that came from Barnaby’s mouth. 

There’s something different in the prisoner’s eyes, though.What was once stubborn indifference is now the first spark of a challenge.

“You aren’t immune.”Barnaby continued.“This NEXT?He could’ve made you do it yourself.”  
No, not a challenge.A dare. 

“I’ve been where you are.I _know_ how much you’re hurting.And I can tell you beyond _any_ reasonable doubt that what he is able to do is worse than anything you could imagine.”

_“Shut_ **_up.”_ **

He’s out of his depth.It’s nothing he’d say under any other circumstances.Ever.There’s a line, and he’s crossing it, but - 

…

If he can get to him.If that NEXT could get to him it’s over.And Kotetsu’s blood won’t stain his hands again. 

_“He could make you do anything.He could make you drown him.Suffocate him.He could make you_ **_skin him alive_ ** _and you’d have no choice but -”_

A scream.

Not from Barnaby.Not from Andrew. 

Kotetsu roars like a wounded animal.There’s a steady river of blood coming from his mouth and down his face, onto his clothes.Barnaby’s already holding him by the time he collapses to the ground. 

There’s a crash from inside the cell. 

It’s over.Just like that.


End file.
